eNewsletter
October 2011
In This Issue
Together, They're Living Better
Insights and Opinions
Striving for Excellence

   
M.Michelle Hood, FACHE

EMHS, President and CEO 

Bangor Beacon Community

Statewide Advisory Committee

Chair

 

Erik Steele, DO
EMHS, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer
Bangor Beacon Community Principal Investigator
 
          
Leadership
Catherine Bruno, FACHE
Bangor Beacon Community Executive Sponsor
EMHS, Chief Information Officer Lead

Dale Hamilton
Executive Director, Community Health and Counseling Services
Alternate 

Clincial Transformation
Jim Raczek, MD
EMMC, Chief Medical Officer Lead
 
Robert Allen, MD
Penobscot Community Health Center, Executive Medical Director
Alternate

 

Evaluation
Barbara Sorondo, MD
EMMC, Director
Clinical Research Center
Lead 
 
Frank Bragg, MD
EMMC, Family Practice Provider
Alternate

 

Meaningful Use
Dev Culver
HealthInfoNet, Executive Director
Lead

Bob Kohl
Maine Primary Care Association HIT Project Director
Alternate
 
Sustainability
Mike Donahue, MBA
EMMC, Vice President, Physician Practices
Lead

Donald Krause, MD
St. Joseph Healthcare
Internal Medicine
Alternate

  
Bangor Beacon Staff
 
Mac Hilton
Program Director
 
Debra Carpenter-Zeman
Project Manager 
  
Melanie Pearson

Project Manager

 

Lanie Abbott
Senior Communications and Outreach Specialist

Andrea Littlefield
Senior Communications and Outreach Specialist

 

Beth Johnson
Project Coordinator

 

Julie Adams

Administrative Assistant


Stay up to date with the Bangor Beacon Community!


   

 Gayle Wittier

 Motiviation is Up to You 

Gayle Whittier, RN, CCM, is a care manager at EMMC's Husson Internal Medicine. She is also a breast cancer survivor and sometimes a runner. Actually, Gayle not only ran in Bangor's Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, but she also finished fourth in her age group, and was the first survivor to cross the finish line.

 

Diagnosed in 2003 with lobular carcinoma, Gayle credits regular screening and digital mammography for her early diagnosis and survival. Gayle had no family history of breast cancer, no health issues, and has always led an active life so the diagnosis was a surprise. 
 

This year's race was the first Gayle had run. "I'm not a regular runner," she says. "Another survivor told me about the Komen Race and how great it was. I'm glad I finally did it."

 

As a care manager, Gayle understands how difficult it is to be motivated. "Motivation is different for everyone," explains Gayle. "For me, doing this race was important. When I work with patients, we talk about what motivates them and start to work in that direction to accommodate change. I don't motivate people, people motivate themselves."

 

 

 

Min Kim

Up Close and Personal...

Minyoung Kim, Bangor Beacon Community's ONC program manager was in town in September to attend the Care Manager Forum. During her visit, Min was able to also attend the Penobscot Community Health Care's weekly care manager meeting; shadow Danielle Reardon, Acadia Hospital care manager, during a visit with a patient; attend the Core Evaluation Team Meeting; and meet with David Prescott, PhD, chair of the Mental Health Task Force. Min found the visit enlightening and had an opportunity to see up close and personal how care management is benefiting our Bangor Beacon Community patients.

 

A Round of Applause, Please

 Kathy and dr Oz

 CAYC couple

channel 7

care about your care 4

By all accounts, the national Care About Your Care event was a huge success. Locally, nearly a hundred healthcare providers and members of our community joined us at the Spectacular Event Center in Bangor to learn more about the resources available in our area to help people better manage their care.

 

Bill and Louise Park stopped by. They live in Brewer and were interested to see what types of services were available to them, especially Bill who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). "I graduated from nursing school in 1947, and since retiring a lot of things have changed," smiles Louise. The Parks both got a massage while visiting with the exhibitors. They watched the Dr. Oz webcast and then listened to the panel discussion. "It's been very enlightening and we're certainly glad we came."

 

If you were unable to attend the Care About Your Care event, we received great local coverage. You can watch the Dr. Oz webcast or view the news reports here.  

 

WABI TV5 News

Bangor Daily News

Care About Your Care   

 

 

Follow Us!

Greetings! 

 

The rainy days and cool nights are making the leaf peeping extraordinary. Those of us with young children are preparing for our first parent teacher conferences of the school year and helping our youngsters pick out their Halloween costumes, all of which are the first signs that winter is on the way.

 

We have much to celebrate in our Bangor Beacon Community this month. Care managers are working with nearly 1200 patients. HealthInfoNet continues to connect all Beacon Community partners to the statewide electronic health information exchange. Both Eastern Maine Medical Center (EMMC) and St. Joseph Hospital are connected and continue to see that a majority of patients have medical information from both facilities in the system. This fall, HealthInfoNet expects to connect Penobscot Community Health Care and physician practices at St. Joseph and EMMC. 

 

And the icing on the cake is that the great work that the Bangor Beacon Community is doing is already spreading regionally. Bucksport Family Practice, Katahdin Valley Health Center, Sebasticook Family Doctors, and Health Access Network all received a $100,000 grant from Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to expland the lessons of Bangor Beacon  into their work.

 

Best regards,

 

Lanie Abbott

Senior Communications and Outreach Specialist 

 

P.S. If there are articles you would like to see in an upcoming issue of our eNewsletter, please let me know. Call me directly at 207.973.9621 or email me at [email protected].

 

 Andy and Charlotte

  Together, They're Living Better!

Collectively, Andy and Charlotte Fitzgerald were spending nearly $600 a month on cigarettes. Besides the dollar amount, their habit was taking a toll on their health. Their care manager Kathy Bragdon, RN, at Penobscot Community Health Care, thought they could be successful at kicking the habit if they worked together. "Kathy is super. She makes you feel like you can do anything, and she understands it's not going to be a piece of cake," shares Charlotte.

 

Charlotte, a school bus driver in Old Town, developed asthma in her 30s and was tired of always feeling out of breath. "We have four grandchildren and I want to play with them without always feeling out of breath and tired." She uses her inhaler at night to reduce the risk of having coughing fits associated with bronchitis. She's also had more than her share of pneumonia over the years.

 

As for Andy, he suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). When he started working with Kathy in April, he was smoking 40 cigarettes a day. Now he smokes just four cigarettes a day and is ready to go cold turkey. "You don't realize what a hold tobacco has on your life until you try to give it up. I am glad Kathy encouraged us to do this together. I don't think either of us would be successful on our own."

Not long ago, Andy worked for the Orono Fire Department, which is where the two met. He got hurt in a construction accident and hasn't worked much since. "I really feel if I can get my disease under control, then I can start getting my life back."

 

Andy and Charlotte are both feeling empowered to start living again. The small yet life-changing steps they are taking is also leading them both back to school. "I want to do something with my life - leading by example for our grandchildren so that they can be whatever they want to be," smiles Charlotte. She is hopeful to attend a community college to study graphic design. Andy is also applying to school. "If it were not for Bangor Beacon and our care manager, I don't know if we would have ever dreamed this big or had the support to make the changes we need to in order to get healthy."



CM Forum 

Insights and Opinions... 

Care Managers Share  

Bangor Beacon Community care managers, health coaches, and medical assistants have gathered for nearly a year working towards seamless high-quality healthcare all while caring for their many patients. During their most recent forum, they shared their experiences so far. It is great to hear their perceptions of what is working and what areas have room for improvement. Here are a few insights.

 

"I think it is helpful to have the patient stories and to see what is happening in the eNewsletter format."

"What is really going well is seeing patients really connect with their care managers, and as a result they get engaged and make progress with managing their disease."

"I think one thing we really need to focus on is standardizing what we do. What comes to mind most are the materials we provide to patients. We should make sure patients receive the same message all the way through the healthcare continuum."

 

All the work this group is doing is not going unnoticed. "The biggest benefit at Penobscot Community Health Care (PCHC) from being part of the Bangor Beacon Community has been the development of care management as a service to our patients. Care managers provide another layer of care for the patients who are in the greatest need and who access the healthcare system most often. Our care management team includes a nurse, a medical assistant health coach, and a social worker, who all work as a team with our high risk patients by frequent office visits and telephone calls to help keep their medical conditions under better control, improve their quality of life, avoid hospitalizations, and help patients avoid serious complications of their illness," shares Robert Allen, MD, executive medical director at PCHC.

 

Soon care managers will see how their patients are doing compared to others with the same disease allowing them to further their work together to improve the care provided to those in greatest need in our community.



 Dr Bragg

Striving for Excellence...

It's Just What the Doctor Ordered 

How many of us can trace back our ancestry to the mid-1800s? Frank Bragg, MD, at Husson Internal Medicine can do that and more. If you live in Bangor, chances are you have heard of his family's business - N.H. Bragg and Sons. Dr. Bragg's great-great grandfather opened the store on Broad Street in Bangor in 1854. He was a blacksmith supplier selling coal and bellows, anvils and hammering tools, as well as iron and buggy parts. Dr. Bragg grew up watching his family work hard to find the best quality tools and equipment to sell to their customers and the importance of working together. But the family business couldn't hold his attention. "I enjoy people and remain fascinated by science. Medicine is a delightful blend of caring and science. Medicine, much like running a family business these days, is also becoming a team sport," smiles Dr. Bragg.

 

Dr. Bragg, like many kids growing up in Bangor, thought he'd go off to college and never return. "When I finished my residency in Boston, I was visiting my parents, and my mom said her doctor was looking for a new partner in his practice and that I should go talk to him. I did and I never left. That was nearly 40 years ago." He was busy seven days a week working in the emergency department at both Bangor hospitals as well as visiting his patients in the hospital, nursing homes, and in his office practice. "At the time, all the doctors in the area knew each other from daily contact on hospital rounds. There wasn't time for competition. We were all too busy."

 

But for Dr. Bragg there was always time for improvement. Even with his busy schedule, Dr. Bragg continued doing what he started during his residency when a few of his colleagues would get together and talk about a specific disease and research the best way to treat it. Fifteen years ago that group became known as the Clinical Standards Committee at EMMC. "More and more what we do is based on studies, we are trying to bring the best to our patients - it's evidence-based medicine."

 

Today Dr. Bragg's determination to bring quality healthcare to his patients is the cornerstone to the success of the Bangor Beacon Community. It is, in fact, transforming our medical community. Formerly three fierce competitors, EMMC, St Joseph, and Penobscot Community Health Care (PCHC) are working together to set standards, develop mutual trust, and help each other achieve higher standards by sharing processes that work and are effective.  "Starting in the 70s and through most of the past decade, the idea of these three organizations partnering and collaborating to improve quality, reduce Emergency Department visits and hospital admissions, to reduce duplication of testing, and to lower costs would have seemed a fantasy at best. But here we are in 2011 and it has happened. It's very rewarding to see these large medical groups working together and going in the same direction," shares Robert Allen, MD, executive medical director at PCHC.

 

The Bangor Beacon Clinical Performance Improvement Committee is working together, collaborating on improving care. They are making changes in processes at their practices, meeting, and in many cases, exceeding national standards of care. Collectively, each primary care practice has increased the number of diabetes patients with A1C levels less than eight, increased the number of patients with blood pressure less than 130/80, and increased the number of patients who get retinal exams. By improving in these areas based on evidence-based medicine, we will improve our patient outcomes, and in turn, our community's health.

 

Healthcare organizations around the country turn to our clinical experts to replicate the Bangor Beacon Community's collaborative spirit and vision. Much like Dr. Bragg's 157 year old family business, working together to improve the health of our community is the spirit behind much of what we do. "It's exciting to bring our performance improvement techniques at EMMC to other practices. We are all moving in the same direction and our patients and their families are benefiting," says Dr. Bragg with another smile.

The 12 Bangor Beacon Community partners: